so i bought a cool brew setup and i have a extra keg un touched "no mods" all original, my new setup will allow me to do 10gal batchs is there anyway to load 10gal into this keg carbonate it and serv from it? is there a special adapter i can use? i never played with a real 15.5 gal keg and kinda lost on how to hook it up to my system currently i have a normal corny ball lock setup.. i just never messed with a sankey keg before..

There are adapter kits to convert sanke to homebrew. Its basically just quick disconnects. Got mine on ebay, there are a few keg supply stores that sell them as well. Just google homebrew sanke conversion.

I recently upsized "production" and can brew 20 gal batches. I'm thinking about using sankey keg for 15 gallons. But how do I make sure they are clean? Perhaps I need to have a kid with a very small arm?????

I'll rinse them out, add about a cup of OxyClean and about 5 gallons of water. Then I take a carboy brush and scrub the sides. You can pretty much see if you get a flashlight and look right through the neck if they are clean. Some folks like to use an inspection mirror.

After that I just fill it up with water to rinse it out.

On brew day, I add about 3 gallons of clear water and toss it on a burner. Boil that for about 5 minutes and the steam will kill ANYTHING living inside that keg. Careful, the steam is HOT!

All of this is without the spear installed. After fermentation I'd transfer it to a clean keg - Siphon or otherwise, into a clean Sanke. At that point you could reinstall the spear, and carbonate as usual (You have to modify the D-tap to remove the back-flow valve)

There are a TON of threads on Sanke kegging around the forum.

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Originally Posted by Ecnerwal

What does the primary pressure gauge on the tank tell us? That's right, the temperature. Put it on a scale if you want to know how much is in it...

Put some duct tape over the gauge - Or better yet - Replace the high pressure gauge with a plug - High pressure gauges are useless!

You need to remove and reinstall the sanke spear to fill it w/ homebrew. To tap it you need a sanke D coupler. They work well IMHO.

I was under the impression that if you removed the check valves, you don't have to remove the spear to fill it. Not that you'd want to just fill it without sanitizing it first, but you can sanitize, CO2 purge, then fill if you do it that way.

I was under the impression that if you removed the check valves, you don't have to remove the spear to fill it. Not that you'd want to just fill it without sanitizing it first, but you can sanitize, CO2 purge, then fill if you do it that way.

Yes this can be done, and I believe the commercial brewers clean and fill through the sanke port w/ specialized equipment, and only break a keg down occasionally for more detailed cleaning. On the homebrew level, removing the spear works best for me and most others I believe.

On the homebrew level w/ unfiltered beer you will have yeast and sediment that needs to be flushed from a spen keg. Commercial brewers circulate some pretty strong cleaners and acid rinse, kinda out of reach for your average homebrewer.